Sheriff Investigates Two Doctors For Prescriptions To Dodge Scion

Two doctors who prescribed the powerful narcotic Dilaudid to the grandson of the Dodge Motor Co. founder are being investigated by the Palm Beach County Sheriff`s Office, detectives said Thursday.

``These doctors have prescribed hundreds of pills to the same person over a short period of time,`` said Agent Harry Brown of the Criminal Investigation Bureau. ``I have to question the amount of Dilaudid they`re prescribing.``

Dilaudid, an opium derivative similar to morphine, is a potent painkiller most often prescribed to terminal cancer victims.

Brown would not identify the two doctors, but said both prescribed Dilaudid to John F. Dodge, 31, of Palm Beach over a period of several months in 1984 and early 1985. He said one doctor works in Palm Beach, the other in Lake Park.

The two doctors are not the first physicians to come under police scrutiny for prescribing Dilaudid to Dodge, whose grandfather, Horace, founded the Dodge Motor Co.

In June 1983, the license of Pompano Beach physician Jose Torres was revoked by the state Board of Medical Examiners. The action was taken after the board learned Torres had prescribed 1,800 Dilaudid tablets and 1,700 Valium tablets to Dodge during an eight-month period.

Dodge has other ways of obtaining Dilaudin, according to Brown. He has been charged with numerous counts of forging Dilaudid prescriptions. His most recent arrest was last week, when the Sheriff`s Office added two more counts to the five charges lodged in March. He is free on $2,000 bail.

Brown said the investigation of one of the doctors has been turned over to Palm Beach police. The other doctor prescribed more than 600 four-milligram Dilaudid tablets to Dodge from October 1984 to February 1985, Brown said.

According to Brown, when the Palm Beach doctor stopped prescribing Dilaudid to Dodge, the Lake Park doctor began writing prescriptions.

``It`s very suspicious,`` he said. ``He walked out of one office and into the other.``

Brown said the Lake Park doctor prescribed Dilaudid to Dodge three times a week in dosages ranging from 10 to 32 tablets. He said the doctor told him he was prescribing the drug as part of a detoxification program for Dodge.

But the doctors` prescriptions accounted for only a fraction of Dodge`s Dilaudid, according to Brown. ``Every time he got a prescription from the doctor, he`d forge a couple more,`` Brown said. ``He was getting thousands of pills.``

Brown said Dodge was filling his prescriptions at different pharmacies, and it was a suspicious pharmacist who eventually led to his arrest.

``It`s just hard for me to believe a man can take a thousand of these pills and still be on his feet,`` he said.

Brown said the normal prescribed dosage of Dilaudid is one tablet every four hours.

``It`s the most potent drug you can legally purchase,`` he said. ``It`s much more powerful and addictive than cocaine.``

Dilaudid is also a valuable cash drug on the street, said Lt. Tom Thompson of the Sheriff`s Office Organized Crime Bureau. ``It`s a small tablet that costs about 40 cents in the drug store,`` he said. ``But they go for $40 a tablet on the street.``

Thompson said Dodge has been charged with illegally obtaining more than 2,000 Dilaudid pills.

``That`s $80,000 in cash,`` he said.

Brown, who regularly checks pharmacies to see how much Dilaudid is dispensed to whom, said terminal cancer patients are the only people who normally receive large doses of the drug. In Dodge`s case, there was no reason to prescribe massive doses, he said.

``Some doctors threw him out of their offices,`` he said. ``But these doctors kept prescribing this stuff for months.``

When Brown completes his investigation, he said he will turn it over to the state Department of Professional Regulation.

``It will be up to the DPR to review it. They can take administrative action against a doctor`s license or seek criminal charges.``